Students hang pennants on National College Decision Day

By Grace Dieveney, Staff Writer|May 3, 2018

The+Class+of+2018+and+Head+of+School+Elizabeth+English+pose+in+the+Rose+Room+with+pennants.+The+seniors%2C+along+with+Gwen+Strasberg+19%2C+participated+in+the+pennant-hanging+event.

Photo credit: Grace Dieveney

The Class of 2018 and Head of School Elizabeth English pose in the Rose Room with pennants. The seniors, along with Gwen Strasberg ’19, participated in the pennant-hanging event.

At 7:45 a.m. on Tueday, songs from “High School Musical” could be heard blaring throughout the halls. Seniors, wearing their college gear to school for the first time, jumped up and down, singing, dancing and hugging one another.

A few hours later, the girls would carry on the tradition of celebrating National College Decision Day, an annual event that falls on May 1, the deadline for students to commit their college of choice.

Gracie Marx ’18, Jael Ellman ’18, Cybele Zhang ’18 and Elyse Pollack ’18 pose for a picture in front of the maypole. Seniors and faculty sported college gear to celebrate their decisions. Image courtesy of Zhang.

For Archer, the tradition entails students, faculty and administrators gathering in the Rose Room to celebrate the decisions, take pictures and hang pennants in the College Guidance hallway.

“[The pennant party] is our way of acknowledging that the girls are officially done with the [college admissions] process,” Co-Director of College Guidance Gabrielle Dorsey said.

After a few remarks made by Dorsey and Interim Co-Director of College Guidance Sonali Bridges, a few matriculation statistics were read to the class.

According to Dorsey, the Class of 2018 has 69 graduates who were accepted to 123 colleges. They are headed to 20 different states and one country, and the average number of schools applied to was seven.

However, seniors were not the only ones celebrating a college decision. Junior Gwen Strasberg attended the celebration as well, wearing a University of Southern California sweatshirt and hat. Strasberg, who was accepted into the Resident Honors Program, is one of a small group of eleventh graders in the country that will skip senior year and go straight to USC next school year.

For many students, the day’s celebration was bitersweet.

“Hanging the pennants made [going to college] seem so real.” Josie Garcia-Euyoque ’18 said. “It was great to bring the year…to a close.”